Ngk Insulators, Inc.

Shigetaka Wada

Tetsuo Watanabe

Toshio Yamada

Senji Atsumi

Shigeo Soejima

Akira Ohmura

Shunzo Mase

An apparatus for heating the fuel mixture of an internal combustion engine includes a cylindrical heating body, adapted to form a passageway between a fuel supply and an internal combustion engine, having a double walled structure formed by spaced inner and outer metallic cylinders. A plurality of plate-like ceramic heating elements having a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) of electrical resistance are inserted between the inner and outer cylinders and are urged into contact with the inner cylinder by a resilient spring member. The cylindrical heating body is sealed by welding, brazing, caulking or packing to form a gas-tight chamber enclosing the ceramic heating elements and isolating them from degradation by the fuel mixture. The cylindrical body is provided with an air hole communicating the chamber with an ambient air vent passage formed in an insulator member attached to the body thereby connecting the interior of the chamber and the ceramic heating elements therein to an external air supply.

Apparatus for heating a mixed gas on an internal combustion engine

A heater for an air-fuel mixture having a heating element of a positive temperature coefficient resistor comprises a pair of metallic thin cylinders of different sizes each having outward flange portions at least at one end combined with each other as a double cylinder; a plurality of positive temperature coefficient resistors arranged between said inner and outer cylinders with springs for pressing the positive temperature coefficient resistors to the inner cylinder wall; an electric insulator plate inserted between the outward flange portions of said inner cylinder and the outward flange portions of said outer cylinder; a fixing means anchoring between said outward flange portion of the outer cylinder and said outward flange portion of the inner cylinder for fixing integrally with electric insulator plate; an electrically insulating material inserted between an inner end portion of the inner cylinder and an inner end portion of the outer cylinder for spacing between said inner end portion of the inner cylinder and said inner end portion of the outer cylinder with end gaps so as to insulate said inner end portions of said inner cylinder and outer cylinder. The engine with this heater can easily start and requires no fuel-rich mixture even in cold weather. As a result, an exhaust amount of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon in exhaust gas can be remarkably reduced and an engine having excellent acceleration ability immediately after starting can be obtained.

Heater for air-fuel mixture having heating element of positive

A honeycomb structural body consisting of barium titanate series ceramics having a positive temperature coefficient of electric resistance can be obtained by forming a green mass consisting of a mixture of raw material powders containing at least 50% by weight of powders having perovskite type crystal structure and having a specifically limited particle size distribution, water and at least two kinds of organic binders, and drying and firing the formed article. The honeycomb structural body is suitable to be used as a heating element.

Method of producing honeycomb structural bodies consisting of barium

An oxygen partial pressure measuring device for determining oxygen partial pressures in exhaust gases emitted from internal combustion engines comprises a metallic vessel mounted within an exhaust pipe of the engine and having an exhaust gas inlet facing to the exhaust gas flow and an exhaust gas outlet formed in a side surface of the vessel, an oxygen concentration cell shutting the exhaust gas out of the air in an air-tight manner, and a monolithic structure, what is called a honeycomb structure, located between the exhaust gas inlet and the oxygen concentration cell within the vessel for burning the exhaust gas.

Oxygen partial pressure measuring device suitably adapted for internal

Barium titanate series semiconductive ceramics having a positive temperature coefficient of electric resistance are disclosed. The ceramics consist mainly of a barium titanate series compound and contain specifically limited small amounts of titanium dioxide, silicon oxide, aluminum oxide, at least one element selected from the group consisting of rare earth elements, yttrium, bismuth, antimony, niobium, tantalum and tungsten, at least one element selected from the group consisting of manganese, copper, iron and chromium, and zinc oxide. The ceramics are low in the variance of electric resistance values and have a low water absorption and hence are low in the change of electric properties due to the lapse of time.

Barium titanate series ceramics having a positive temperature

A simple method of producing an oxygen concentration cell provided with durable electrodes having a high activity and a low internal resistance is disclosed. The method comprises applying a solution of a compound of platinum group metal to an oxygen ion conductive solid electrolyte, converting the compound into an insoluble or hardly soluble compound by a chemical reaction, and thermally decomposing the insoluble or hardly soluble compound into the platinum group metal to be used as the electrodes of the cell.

Method of producing an oxygen concentration cell

An oxygen concentration cell capable of operating at a lower temperature and having a higher response speed is disclosed. The cell consists of an oxygen ion conductive solid electrolyte provided on both of its surfaces with electrodes consisting of a porous electrically conductive layer, which is formed of a platinum group metal and contains in its pores a metal oxide formed by the thermal decomposition of an oxide-forming metal compound.

Oxygen concentration cell and a method of producing the same

A ceramic is disclosed which maintains a high electric resistance over a wide temperature range and has a large temperature coefficient of resistance variation at temperatures just below the aforesaid range, the PTC ceramic consisting essentially of

Barium titanate ceramic

Heating elements comprising a ceramic article of a honeycomb structure having a positive temperature coefficient of electric resistance and composed of barium titanate are provided with channels, in which a pair of ohmic electrodes consisting mainly of silver as a metallic component and having a surface resistivity of the electrode per se of not more than 10 m.OMEGA./cm.sup.2 are provided on both end surfaces thereof and the ohmic electrodes are coated with an electrical insulating and thermostable material.

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Kuwana, Japan

Shigetaka Wada